Feature: What Is Nike Visible Air?

Visible Air is Nike's Air cushioning with a window in the sole, so you can see it. Nike had been hiding pressurised Air bags inside its midsoles since the late 1970s, and the Air Max 1 in 1987 was the first shoe to show one off. The VaporMax 360 in these photos, from 2020, is one of the odder chapters in the story since.

Where did Nike Air come from?

The idea came from Frank Rudy, a former aerospace engineer, who took his gas-filled cushioning bags to Nike in the late 1970s. The first shoe to use them was the Tailwind, which made its debut at the 1978 Honolulu Marathon before a wider release in 1979. For almost a decade after that, the Air stayed out of sight inside the foam.

Which Nike was the first with visible Air?

The Air Max 1, in 1987. Tinker Hatfield, who'd trained as an architect, took the idea from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the building that wears its pipes and escalators on the outside, and cut a window into the midsole so the Air unit showed. Nike's executives weren't keen at first. They worried customers would think a sole with a bubble in it looked fragile.

From the Air Max 360 to the VaporMax

Nike spent the next twenty years making the Air bigger. The Air Max 360 in 2006 was the first Air Max with no foam in the midsole at all, just Air all the way round, which is where the 360 comes from. The VaporMax in 2017 went a step further and dropped the midsole altogether. Its Air unit is attached straight to the upper and does the job of the sole.

What is the Nike VaporMax 360?

It's a cross between the two, released in January 2020. The upper borrows from the 2006 Air Max 360, with speed-lacing loops, welded overlays and a TPU frame wrapped around the heel, and it even has "2020" on the eyelets where the original had "2006". Underneath is a VaporMax Air unit with a full-length foam midsole on top, so the shoe named after a foam-free Air Max puts the foam back in. Nike's own description says the foam is there for cushioning underfoot.

It's not a subtle shoe. The VaporMax unit and the foam together make it tall, and RunRepeat's review puts the extra height at about an inch and a half. The pair in our photos is the black version, with an iridescent Swoosh that changes colour as it catches the light.

What to wear with the VaporMax 360

It's a 2000s shoe, so it wants 2000s proportions: wide track pants, baggy cargos, or straight-leg jeans long enough to sit on top of the sole. The black pair is the easiest to wear, and it's the one we'd pick with an all-black outfit and a technical-looking jacket.

The pairs in this post are long gone. For the trainers we have in now, have a look at our footwear, or read more about the Nike pony hair trainers we stocked.